A simple question which cuts to the heart and beyond

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Who can be called a Jew? The answer to the question has worrying implications today

The fast day of tisha b’av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of
Av, which fell this week, commemorates the destruction of the First and
Second Temples in Jerusalem and the many catastrophes in Jewish history.

The Talmud opined that the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD70
because of sinat chinam, gratuitous hatred between Jew and Jew, and until
this sin was atoned for, the third temple would not be built. Indeed
disputes today, not least the vexed question of who is a Jew, continue to
bedevil the Jewish world and, in the case of Israel,